This week's TTriddles Wait, don't turn away from this column yet. TTriddles are for two types of TT readers. They are for people who enjoy riddles and puns, plays-on-words, trivia, and general and Jewish knowledge questions. And they are for people who can't (or aren't interested) in the mental gymnastics required to solve TTriddles, but might enjoy reading the answers and picking up odds and ends of knowledge from them. And after you read the answers, you might want to pick a few TTriddles to try on your children or guests. You can even give them hints along the way and have fun watching their mental wheels turn. Last week's (Chukat) Ttriddles: [1] Had they spoken English, this might have been it - Agkistrodon Contortrix [2] Verbally appropriate to be the opening word [3] One is mightier than the other - but combined... [4] Para Aduma and 79, 47, 29, 26, 50, 82... (corrected) [5] Apparently, REISH stayed behind [6] You missed your Sunday appointment, so today will be the first and come back on... when? [7] A newspaper - photos of the fifties (or a police car) [8] A mixed up State can bring Tahara [9] Was that Hazel in the Chevrolet? [10] Granny Smith when she was a baby on B, Q, M, SI, the B [11] Confound Haman's hand to purify. [12] Before Straus? (not from Parshat HaShavua) [1] Rashi points out that G-d had not told Moshe what material to make the snake on a stick from. Moshe chose copper because of the play on words N'CHASH NECHOSHET, a copper snake (And NASHACH, bit - but that's with a CHAF and not a CHET, which not everyone pronounces one like the other). Had they spoken English at the time, and had Moshe still made the snake out of copper, then it would be because the snakes involved were of the species, Agkistrodon Contortrix, commonly known as the copperhead. [2] The opening word of the Haftara is "verbally appropriate" - V'YIFTACH (a person's name and "it will open"). RHM got this one. [3] The pen is mightier than the sword. Rabbi Chaim Eisen of Har Nof (and the Israel Center faculty, who are NOT excluded from solving TTriddles) said that in Chukat they are combined in the penned offer of Shalom which must precede war, followed by the sword of the wars mentioned in the sedra. Good answer. Zvi Roth agrees. The "real" answer was the mixed Hebrew-English phrase, "pen b'cherev" of Edom's refusal to allow Israel to pass through its territory (20:18). [4] CE/HN to the rescue on this one. There was an error in one of the atomic numbers of the six metals referred to in the TTriddle. 27 is Cobalt (Co) should have been 29, Copper (Cu). Specifically, the TTriddle is asking for what is common between Para Aduma and gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, and lead. CE answered MEI NIDA, the term for the Para Aduma potion, which appears many times in Chukat's opening portion, and is what is used to purify vessels of the various metals that are part of the spoils of war, as written in Matot (31:22) when Elazar is giving "Kashering and Taharing" instructions to the soldiers who brought back vessels from the war against Midyan. CE's answer is perfectly correct, since the term MEI NIDA is used only in these two contexts. The intended answer was ZOT CHUKAT HATORAH, a phrase also used only in these two contexts. [5] When Miriam (MEM-REISH-YUD-MEM) died, no water (MEM-YUD-MEM) remained. Apparently the REISH stayed behind. (RHM tried, so did ZR, but...) [6] A person who becomes TAMEI by contact with a dead body on a Friday, would make an appointment (to avoid waiting on line, I guess) for the sprinkling of the Para Aduma potion on Sunday and Thursday, the third and seventh day from when he became TAMEI. In this TTriddle, he apparently showed up on Thursday. The Kohen in charge told him that having missed Sunday's appointment, the Thursday one will count as his day-3 sprinkling. Therefore, he will have to come back on the following Monday to receive his day-7 sprinkling. He would go to Mikve on Monday, sometime. And when the light of Monday's sun leaves the sky (when the stars come out on Monday night), he will be TAHOR again. [7] The - in the TTriddle is a minus sign. A newspaper, according to the old riddle, is black and white and read all over. Photos of the fifties were black & white (a police car used to be called a black & white; so too the circular pastry with half chocolate and half white frosting available in Brooklyn Bake Shop). Therefore, newspaper minus black & white is red all over. That is the Para Aduma. (RHM got it.) [8] State is Medina (MEM-DALET-YUD-NUN-HEI). If you mix up those letters, you can get MEI NIDA, which can bring Tahara. ZR got this one. [9] The battle that followed Aharon's death resulted in (according to Rashi) the capture of a maid. Hazel was a famous TV maid (to the Baxters, remember) and if she were in a Chevy, then you have it, because "shevi" means captivity. ZR remembered Hazel. [10] Granny Smith is an apple. When she was a baby, she was a little apple. B,Q,M,SI, and the B stand for Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx (what yeshiva in Yerushalayim is grammatically analogous to the borough which is home to the Yankees?). The five boroughs of New York City are the Big Apple. A little apple on a big apple is how Rashi describes HOR HAHAR. [11] This is the same as [8]. The hand of Haman is YAD HAMAN. When you confound, or mix up those letters, you can get MEI NIDA, which will purify. [12] This was just a train of thought from the King George Street question (Herbert Samuel). At the beginning of Rechov Straus, on the outside of the Mayan Stub store, is an old street sign that predates the change to Straus. The street used to be called Chancellor Avenue.
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